SARS crisis: China admits its big, deadly lie

There have been more than seven times as many SARS cases in Beijing than previously reported, China's Government admitted last night.

Health authorities conceded there had been 339 cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in Beijing alone, with 18 people having died in the capital. There are an additional 402 suspected cases.

Hours after the cover-up was revealed, China announced the sacking from key Communist Party posts of the Health Minister, Zhang Wenkang, and the Beijing Mayor, Meng Xuenong.

China's deputy health minister, Gao Qiang, said the week-long May Day holidays would be cancelled amid fears that the massive movement of people and the crowding of tourists in popular destinations could cause SARS to spread.

Chinese authorities have previously admitted to only 44 cases and four fatalities in Beijing, but came clean last night after weeks of intense pressure from the World Health Organisation.

China's health ministry said the nationwide death toll from SARS stood at 79, with 1807 confirmed cases. Previously, the national figures were reported as 67, and 1500 respectively.

In Beijing, doctors revealed they had been ordered by authorities to hide SARS patients from WHO officials in an attempt to downplay the extent of the epidemic.

Three new SARS cases were detected yesterday in eastern Zhejiang province, where no cases had previously been reported.

Chinese health authorities announced that all domestic air passengers would have to sign a declaration stating that they had no SARS symptoms before being allowed to board their aircraft.

Worldwide, SARS has now killed almost 200 people, with Hong Kong suffering its blackest day since the crisis began, with 12 deaths on Saturday. The latest deaths took its toll to 81, the most of any country, just a day after officials claimed the outbreak would stabilise.

A Hong Kong newspaper yesterday reported that a British female member of an around-the-world yacht race team was suspected of contracting the virus in the territory and had been isolated.

Canada yesterday announced its 14th death from the flu-like disease, while Singapore has also reported another death, taking its toll to 14 and causing the Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, to suggest that the city state could be facing its worst crisis.

A Singapore food market has been ordered to shut after three people who worked there contracted the SARS virus, threatening the Government's battle to contain the disease to hospitals. A taxi driver who ferried one of the workers to the wholesale vegetable market has also been infected.

Elsewhere, Vietnam is considering sealing its border with China, India confirmed its second SARS case, while in Indonesia, a British man infected with the disease has broken quarantine and fled to Hong Kong.

Indonesian authorities deployed the army's disaster brigade at major entry points in a bid to stop SARS from spreading throughout the archipelago.

Indonesia's army has sent up to 10 personnel to each major entry point around the country to help nurses and doctors conduct health checks after the unidentified 47-year old British citizen fled the country last Friday. He had been released from hospital and ordered to stay at home.

The Malaysian human resources minister said yesterday that occupancy rates at hotels in Kuala Lumpur had plummeted from 65per cent full to about 33 per cent since the outbreak began, while bookings on Malaysia's resort islands were as low as 20 per cent.

Australia has officially notified the World Health Organisation of only three probable cases of SARS. The three children came to Australia earlier this month to visit relatives, arriving from Toronto, Canada.